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Prompt:
Consider, in going back to find Elise, did Richard Collier act with free will? Did he ever have a choice in going back in time? (explain your thoughts and be specific).
In addition, why can’t Richard go back to Elise? (it is not stated directly in the movie – you will have to think about it and come up with your own explanation).
For McKenna, she has a few days of fearful anticipation, one night of love, and a lifetime of loneliness. Collier suffers as well. Was it all worth it and
how would your experience of the movie have changed if McKenna and Collier did not return to each other “after death”? Would you have enjoyed it as much or more, why? (explain and be specific).
Soap
Ah. That question is one with no real answer. It's impossible. No answer will ever truly suffice. But, I'm an expert at fighting losing battles, so here goes nothing. It's all centered around fate, the same way that just about every fantasy movie, comic book, and video game in existence does. He was fated to go back in time and fall in love, because he already had, depending on your perspective. But even so, he did want to go back in time, truly he did. But then, and this is where most would find me confusing in person, because although I do make sense while speaking, you have to pay real close attention and be open to my view of the world, but i digress. Okay well, presumably you lost your place so I'll restate. He was fated to go back in time, but he did want to go back as well, although, it's a definite possibility that he was fated to want to go back, meaning even if it appears you have made a conscious decision one way or the other, some higher up in the cosmic corporate ladder is really the one making you choose this, and even making you believe you chose this. But this outlook on life sucks, right? If this became widely believed we would have tons of crime and suicides and whatever else was in that story we read in multiverse week where the guy is sitting at his desk. i forget the name, I'm bad with names. But I do remember the details.
Now, if you believe in the fate-ness defense to your follies, then you'll come up with the same answer to everything, for instance, he can't make it back to Elsie, because he wasn't meant to. But if you want a less boring answer with the same outcome, his body was too weak from the first jump to make a second one. That is to say, that his mind knew that it was about to cease functioning, due to an acute case of him being dead, so it wouldn't allow itself to triumph over matter again, presumably because said mind wasn't such an expert in the field of fighting losing battles as I.
"It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all." Good quote. I forget who first jotted it down, but they were famous and I give them all credit due. It's definitely worth it. This question reminds me of a movie I saw once, though almost everything does. It's this guy who falls in love and gets his heart broken and decides to never let it happen again. Then he helps a friend fall in love, and he gets crushed. They have an argument in which the first guy tells his friend you never have to feel this way again, but the friend just gets pissed. He went off on him saying that he feels like shit, just completely miserable, but if feeling this way is the closest thing he has to being with her, then he wants to be miserable forever. That's pretty deep. If I tell you the name of the movie, it'll probably decrease the effect it would have, so I'll just go ahead and not. But suffice it to say, it gets my point across. I love that they got reunited, but I would have enjoyed it just the same if they hadn't. Some movies are better because of the sad endings. The lost love. One of my favorites actually, Moulin Rouge, has such an ending. It's amazing, and wouldn't be as hard hitting if it ended happy, but I would have liked it just the same.
Andi
-No I do not believe that Richard had a choice to not go back. It is in a sense time travel fate. If he had the option of never going back, he wouldn’t have the watch, as well as the fact that his name would not be in the registrar of the hotel. The moment the aged Elise handed him the watch it set forth a time loop. If he never went back in time, she would have no watch to give him. This however is assuming that the watch wash his to begin with and that he himself created the loop somehow. This truly makes no sense to me and is a massive mistake on the writer’s part. Perhaps the writer wanted to cause this confusion to the audience, or simply show the audience that Richard truly had no choice in the matter. He had to fall in love with her and go back in time, there was no other way.
-I think that the reason that Richard can not go back to Elise is because it would break the time loop. If he was able to go back after the penny incident, then old Elise would never have had the need to go and find him after his play. That would mean that Richard would never have a reason to go back in time in the first place to meet her. He was fated to go and return, because if he did not return, there would have been no reason for him to go.
- Being a hopeless romantic myself I do believe it was worth it. If Elise had never met him she may have never now love. She may have lived the rest of her life in the same loneliness or perhaps an even worse loneliness at never having known happiness. For Richard however, it may not have been as worth it, he was a well off modern playwright that could have perhaps found love had he not traveled back in time. He was forced to suffer physically and emotionally unnecessarily. In the end I think they both gained something they never had before and that was worth it regardless of how brief.
- I do not think that them meeting in the afterlife or not had any effect on my like or dislike of the film. I am not a strong believer of the after life, so I assumed that perhaps it was just a dream he had before his death. It is nice however that this brief glimmer of hope is given. It makes the viewer have hope, that love can perhaps “conquer all” as they say. If the film did not show this, the movie would just be tragic and perhaps not as big of a hit. People are more prone to see a movie again if it offers a happy ending. No one wants to be depressed by something they saw to entertain themselves.
Yat
I think Richard Collier didn’t act with his free will, and it was more a fate between him and Elise McKenna. I will say that it is a cycle and goes on and on in the past and future time space bases on the myth of time travel. Richard Collier is the reason that caused Elise to retire from acting, and had been living in her only world and lifetime of loneliness until she passed away; Richard fell in love with the woman, Elise Mckenna in the picture at the first sight, and because of that perfect and blissful smile that was meant to him. I think the reason why Richard wasn’t able to go back to Elise again is because it was already “planned” that was the fate of their life. Because the present wouldn’t happen if Richard wasn’t accidentally taking out the coin and eventually that Elise was going to become that old lady again, and repeated the same story.
Out of the many romance movies that I had seen, the lovers usually separated by distance and space, but in this movie, time space have separated them. I think Both Elise McKenna and Richard Collier had suffered from love and it was worth it. The appearance of Richard have brought love to Elise; even though he ruined her acting career. Because of the separation in time space, they were no longer able to stay together. After Richard disappeared, Elise spent her lifetime looking for Richard, and tried to study time travel until she met the young Richard that no longer remember her, and nothing is possible to change in their story, she chose to give up her watch and died in regret. And because of the regret, I think that I wouldn’t like to see an ending with such regret, and I think the death of Richard had relieved him from the painful waiting, anticipating like Elise did throughout her lifetime, and he finally met her in eternal where Elise has been waiting for him for so many years.
Joe
He had choices up to a point, but when we see the picture of an older Elise, who gave him the watch in the beginning, I threw up my hands and said, “Fate has him now!” That was the moment he was in too deep to do anything to stop it. He was locked in by a snowball, screwed, glued, and tattooed, and bound by chains of predestination! That was the moment he was pursuing things with such tenacity it would seem crazy to anyone else. The last line of defense was that librarian. He goes up to her and asks about the magazines, and she says that they’re all the way in back, and he asks really nicely. If she said no right there, then that would have been it, he would have free will again, as he wouldn’t have made that connection between Elise and the old woman from the beginning, presumably. But because the librarian aided him, he was locked in, he saw the picture of elderly Elise, spoke to her maid/friend, saw the book written by his professor, spoke to him about time travel, and ultimately did it, that librarian was the catalyst that put him on the path to “Fate City”, population: Richard.
Richard cannot go back to Elise as he is too weak. His professor said that was very straining to do so, and he was in the past briefly. Richard was there for several days. I’m sure that if he rested up, he could swing it later on. But, in the book, it was hinted at that he may have had a brain tumor, and that this was may have been a delusion. You could still make that argument as he hadn’t eaten for nearly a week, but that kind of defeats the purpose of Somewhere in TIME. Luckily, the author realized that whole in his logic when he wrote the screenplay. By traveling through time, he proved that he could do it, and that means could do it again. He just needed rest, both physically and mentally as he propelled himself backward through time by sheer willpower! He’s a Green Lantern of time travel, and the more he does it, theoretically, the easier it will become. That’s just how I see the logic of it unfolding.
As the ending presents itself, it is worth it. If the two didn’t reunite then the movie would be pointless. The whole thing would have just been the crazy dream of a guy who hasn’t eaten in a week. That means plot-holes galore if that is the case. Having an ending that wraps things up in a neat little bow is the name of the game. If there is no resolution, then there is no point, everything leading up to the end would have been for nothing. I would have been quite surly if it ended without them meeting up again. Plus if it ended without them meeting up, then it means he didn’t travel through time, and this being a class focused on that idea, meant someone was asleep at the wheel. But he did travel through time, so everyone was awake at their designated wheels! Awesome!
Cristina
It seems that Richard Collier surrendered his heart over to love and as a result did not have a choice in seeking out Elise. They both suffered heartache because they did not live a long, earthly existence together. But the payoff to their devotion to one another is a romance that will span the constraints of time in the afterlife, and that reason alone can make it all worthwhile. Without this ending, I would have not enjoyed the movie and it would have felt like a waste of time, both for myself and the main characters.
I think Richard was unable to go back in time because he still maintained a small level of doubt that his time-travel experience was real and maintained a level a fear that it was all too delicate and could be quickly lost. Finding the penny from the future confirmed his fears. He had difficulty time-traveling the first time, but he was attempting to go back in time out of curiosity. The stakes were higher the next round and that small ounce of doubt and fear prevented him from doing so.
Christopher
In a way Richard Collier acted in free will. It was his will to fall in love with her, and his will to be an actor, and the man he was. He ultimately made the choice to travel back in time to see her. However he wasn’t without persuasions. The pocket watch and his signature in the registrar are all allusions to his eventual adventure. When he saw her photograph he fell in love with her but also himself in a way. We later see that the influence for Elise’s radiant smile is Collier himself. His influence on her is what may have flipped the switch, his reflection in her eyes. He acted on his own discourse, he bought the suit and the tape recorder, and he made the attempt in an almost “man possessed” sort of way. There is a moment during his first attempt when he starts putting coins into his pockets, he stops and realizes his mistake and puts them in the closet, this scene foreshadows the discovery of the penny that would end his trip. He succeeds in traveling back to 1912 and meeting Elise, They only have a few days together and one chance to chare their love but it was enough. Collier then loses his grip on the past and tumbles back to the future. He tries to relive the experience, tries to send himself back but is unsuccessful. I think he can’t return because that conviction that e would be successful is gone now, The signature and watch and photo all said that he “must” make the trip and now that he has there is no reason to return. I think he wanted to more than anything in the world but he still new he might never return, but its ok because death will triumph over time and he will be united with his love. I’m not sure if a lifetime of suffering on Mckenna’s part is all that fair of a trade-off for a time-traveling beau. Sure their love was indelible, it managed to transcend the physical world, but she shouldn’t disregard a lifetime of experiences and opportunities of happiness on the assumption that one-day he would return. I’m glad they were reunited after death, a rather cliché ending but nevertheless a fitting one. I might have felt a little jilted without it.
Arielle
After Richard Collier got the watch he did not act upon free will, he went back to find Elise because it was his fate. His fate guided him because it was determined. The times become confusing because he had to go back in time and fall in love with her or else he wouldn’t have gotten the watch at all. /Richard can’t go back to Elise because the time loop would be broken; their lives were already planned for them. If he were able to go back, Richard would have never had to go back in time in the first place because the old Elise would have never showed up at the play. /I believe that everything was both worth it and not worth it. For Elise everything was worthwhile. She might have never been able to find love at all if the circumstances where different. Richard may have been able to find love because he was well off before Elise came into his life, he could have avoided his suffering. But their time difference separated them./ I enjoyed the film just the way it was. This ending says that love is powerful and it had happiness although they went through a lot of hard times and a lot of waiting to be with one another again. If this films ending was in the reversed way that it was filmed it would have been sad and not so interesting if they didn’t join together again.
Julia
Richard definitely makes the conscious choice to travel back in time to find Elise. Certainely, his decision was influenced by the older Elise giving him the watch, but ultimately he could have chosen not to. He doggedly pursued each and every method of getting to the past until he got it right. Specifically, he went to Art and his old professor for information, costumed himself, rearranged his room, and tried multiple methods of hypnosis/concentration. Perhaps the reason he can’t back to Elise in the end is that his mind will no longer accept that it is not 1979. Because he witnessed the breaking of the “illusion” with the future penny in 1912, perhaps his mind is fractured beyond repair and cannot re-convince itself that 1912 can be a reality again. It is another possibility that each person can only time travel once. The professor he spoke to said he had only managed it once, and despite Richards most feverish, frantic efforts to return, he was still unable.
The hardships that Richard and Elise experience are a vital part of the story line. Not only would their love seem less extraordinary had they not overcome so many obstacles, but the audience would care less for them. The building of anticipation and their constant struggle makes the end resolution much more satisfying for both the couple and the audience. The viewers must be taken along their journey and actively involved in their distress in order to care as strongly about the outcome of the love story as Richard and Elise do. If they did not reunite after death, the movie would ultimately be a tragedy with no relief. As movies and love stories are a form of entertainment, they usually strive to leave the audience is a resolved or semi-pleasant state. Such an unresolved ending would likely frustrate and anger audiences, and myself. As emotional beings, we liked to replace anguish and pain with hope and faith in eternal love. While the romantic ending certainly makes me enjoy the movie more, the time travel narrative would have been complete without it.
Wonwoong
In my opinion, Richard Collier did not act with free will because he just does it through his and Elise’s fate. If Elise did not say “come back to me”, he may not go to her house and also, does not need to know about her. There are some errors in this movie. Richard met with Elise without any connection such as friend or family relationship. They met through just their destiny. In Elise's past, she met with Richard and fell in love with him, but he is from the future. There are no motivation to meet at the same place and time, even though they are from other space and time. Someone first must provide why to travel through time before they meet each other. Thus I think their meeting is just their fate. This movie did not provide scientific or theoretical story.
By finding the present item, penny, Richard cannot stay with Elise. He breaks the rule of time travel and comes back to his present life. If he did not take out the penny, it is never happened that Elise goes to Richard to say “come back to me” because Elise would live with Richard in other multiverse.
I think it is worth one night of love and lifetime of loneliness because they have their fate to meet again. However, if I am McKenna, I might not agree this fate because I am a just lonely person and other myself in other universe enjoy it instead of me. Thus If McKenna and Collier did not return to each other, there are no happy ending. Collier does not need to travel through time because the present Collier may not know the existence of McKenna.
Mike
Within the movie, it seems to me that Richard Collier did act with free will, but as I reflect after remembering the end of the movie...it seems that he didn't really act on free will but rather acted in order to fulfill a determined destiny. I do not think he had the choice of going back in time because he only could go back once. It seems quite weird that he has no control of time traveling but yet still has the capabilities of going back in time. It is as if there was some other type of higher power motivating his actions and abilities. This transcendence shows up in the end as well when we see Richard and Elise together again. It is as if they were pre-deteremined to be together by fate of some sort. Richard can't go back to Elise because he is ultimately non-existant within her time because he wasn't born yet according to his revealing penny. He ultimately can't go back to Elise because he ambiguously doesn't belong in that time...?
Hmm...I think it was worth it to them both because they got to realize their relationship. Although, they may have only been together for a short amount of time their longing for each-other was ever-present even if they didn't know it at the time. I think the ending would have been even more bizarre but real if they didn't end up together at the end. When the get back together at the end in a heaven-like setting, I think this kind of re-establishes the credibility of destiny and its relationship to higher power and the transcendence of love within the story. It kind of tie up some of the inconsistencies of the story such as Richard's uncontrollable time traveling. I think I like this ending better than the morbid depression of living a lonely un-fufilling life. Although we get a glimpse of what it would be like, Richard's ultimate death and post death activities reaffirms and adds suspense to the happy ending.
Kelvin k
Richard Collier is coming out as a interesting character, which, it isn't really understandable for going back time and find the old lady as a lover. The story seems so romantic but it is far too unique. Most unique part is when old lady hands Richard a pocket watch, this is the beginning for him to feel strangeness of her. Later, Richard discovers that she is Elise McKenna, a famous early 20th-century stage actress while he is taking a break at the Grand Hotel.
Richard decides to use the time-machine after he sees his personal signature on the old guest book, which it is the proof for him that the time machine will success. Still this makes no sense for him to say that time travel is going to be successed because it may not be his signature eventhough signature on guest book looks simular to his. From these terms, it will be difficult to say that Richard is traveling time with his free will. Still when Elise hands a pocket watch it means everything for her to show him a gratitude and love for his courage to go back in time and spend valuable times with her. He may be a stupid man but that makes him how brave man he is. In the end, Richard dies with heartbreak and later they presumably reunite from a window that has a light shining. Richard feels the different time of existence between her and himself, which, his death is planned by author to reconnect them by using eternal death.
It will make much sense to call this movie as a romanticism of European style of movie instead of calling this movie as a science fiction. It is because Richard and Elise's love is having more intererst than the Time-travel Machine. Also the background, and people seems using more European architect, which the place seems to have a noble system.
The important thing for the time travel is show some amazingly different vision and object, which, it asks so much imagination; I believe that is why there is many relationships appear while reading any type of time travel series to stimulate people's interests of time travel and show many availabilities of science.
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